Cancer probe at KC-area elementary school expands to former students, staff

Yahoo

26-05-2025

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After six teachers at one Liberty elementary school were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past five years, advocates desperate for answers are making a plea for more information.
They want to know if former students or past teachers at Warren Hills Elementary have been diagnosed with cancer or other illnesses since leaving the school, which has a 120 foot cell phone tower located 130 feet from the building. The goal, advocates say, is to understand the scope of what they may be dealing with and ultimately see what, if anything, is making people sick.
'It's important to know if former students, staff or teachers at Warren Hill Elementary have cancer or other illnesses related to the wireless radiation because often there is a long latency in cancer awareness or cancer diagnosis,' said Ellie Marks, founder of the California Brain Tumor Association, who has been working alongside Liberty parents and has spoken to the school board and superintendent about the dangers of cell towers.
'There's a long latency period between the time of exposure and the actual diagnosis,' Marks said. 'Students, staff or teachers could have been in the school and diagnosed 10 or even 20 or 30 years later with cancer.'
The search for information is the latest development at Warren Hills Elementary, where teachers have been concerned for years about a potential health risk at the Liberty school. The cell tower's close proximity has caused the most consternation, not just by local residents, but also by national experts. Questions have also centered around other potential environmental concerns, from water to soil and air quality.
On top of the six breast cancer diagnoses since 2020, plus another one in 2013, there have been at least three other cases of various cancers in staff at the school, according to anecdotal information provided to Clay County health officials.
After several reports in The Star about the diagnoses, parent Tiffany Schrader, a nurse, has heard from many who are worried whether the school is safe for children and those who work there, some of whom have offered their help with awareness efforts.
'We just need to find out what's causing it, if anything is,' Schrader said. 'Just do the research to try to help figure out what is going on. That's all we're asking to do. That's all the teachers have asked since day one.'
The push for answers and scrutiny at Warren Hills has gained traction in recent days. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a congressman who represents northern Missouri, including Liberty, asked the Department of Health and Human Services for help investigating the cancer cases.
And he alluded to students being diagnosed as well.
In a letter earlier this month to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Graves asked for the leader's assistance in 'uncovering the root causes in the concerning number of cancer diagnoses amongst staff and students at Warren Hills Elementary School.'
A spokesperson for Graves said in an email to The Star last week that HHS received the request and asked for more information.
Several people — from health and school officials to parents and teachers — have heard anecdotes about former students getting cancer after leaving Warren Hills, but say there's nothing concrete at this point.
In early February, staff at Warren Hills sent an unsigned letter to Superintendent Jeremy Tucker asking for more information and a meeting. Staff said they had 'not felt heard, supported, or have seen the need of urgency to protect our Warren Hills family.'
And they told Tucker that they knew of numerous diagnoses of a variety of cancers in people at the school.
'We have not only had breast cancer diagnoses, but throat, cervical, brain, ovarian, and brain tumors,' staff said in a letter The Star received in a Sunshine Law request. 'Not all staff, but students as well. Six cases in the last two and a half years. One leading to the loss of our friend and teacher.'
Dallas Ackerman, a spokesperson with Liberty Public Schools, said the district doesn't have access to 'detailed data regarding students diagnosed with cancer.'
'But (district officials) do believe there have been a few over the course of the past two decades,' Ackerman said in an email. 'It's important to bear in mind that Warren Hills has an approximate annual student enrollment between 600-700 students, meaning that several thousand students would have attended the school over this period of time.'
Now, advocates hoping to learn more about the situation at Warren Hills, and whether something at the school is making individuals sick, want people to reach out. Marks and Schrader are asking for former students and teachers or staff who have been diagnosed with cancer or other illnesses since leaving the school to email [e-mail].
'We're trying to get a bigger picture of those that have moved on, or those that used to go to school here,' said Schrader. 'Do they have complications now that they're older and they didn't realize that maybe they were predisposed to something at a young age?'
Teachers began asking questions in the fall of 2022, leading the district to ask the Clay County Public Health Center to initiate a study, which ultimately determined that breast cancer diagnoses at the school were in line with county and state figures.
In the fall, a beloved teacher died of cancer and soon after, another teacher was diagnosed with breast cancer. That brought the number of breast cancer diagnoses at Warren Hills to six since 2020 and seven since 2013.
It was a breaking point for many. Since then, the cry for additional testing and a review of the cancer cluster has only gotten louder.
That review is now happening.
On June 25, the Missouri Cancer Inquiry Committee will meet to formally review data provided to the members from Clay County health officials to determine if there is a cancer cluster at the Liberty school. The goal is to determine next steps.
Lisa Cox, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said the purpose of the June meeting is to 'recommend initiating or not initiating a cancer inquiry (investigation).'
'DHSS staff will share their analysis of cancer incidence data and review of the environmental studies that the school district has already completed at Warren Hills,' Cox said.
After meeting with school district officials as well as health leaders from the state on multiple occasions, the Clay County Public Health Center (CCPHC) requested the review earlier this month.
'To date, the school has received information on a total of 7 breast cancer cases, 1 cervical, 1 brain and 1 throat cancer among their staff,' wrote Ashley Wegner, deputy director of the CCPHC, in her letter to the cancer inquiry committee. 'There are also potentially concerns about student populations as of 2025.'
Wegner also wrote to Warren Hills parents, staff and teachers about the requested inquiry. She told them that Clay County health officials will be 'partnering closely with the school district to follow through on procedures if the Missouri Cancer Inquiry Committee approves and initiates the inquiry process.'
'It's important to note that the CI (Cluster Inquiry) process focuses on determining if the number of cancer cases in a defined location meet a statistically abnormal level to support the need for further investigation,' Wegner wrote. 'If a true cluster is identified, CI staff will assist in the implementation of epidemiological studies, notify agencies responsible for remediation of existing environmental hazards and educate the community regarding the risk and response of state government and other concerned agencies regarding cancer locally.'
Wegner told The Star that the public health center provided information to the state that the school had received regarding the diagnoses of teachers and staff. She explained in the letter that 'one of the environmental concerns raised by school staff has been related to the on-site cell tower.'
And she told the committee that the school district 'investigated' the tower in 2022-2023 and has conducted 'multiple environmental and facility assessments' to explore other possible risk factors.
'We've also included that there have been parents that have come back and reported, 'Hey, my kiddo went here and they've developed other types of cancer that are not related to breast cancer,'' Wegner said. 'And so we have submitted all that to the state.
'We haven't been able to put a number to that because there is an entirely separate side of student health that is completely outside of the same arena that employee health would operate in. So we wanted to open it up and see what sort of questions might come about from that.'
At this time, though, Cox said the state is not looking at former students.
Wegner said it was her understanding that on June 25, the committee will 'either make a determination to open an inquiry or not or they will say, 'We're going to table this because we want more information.''
After The Star reported earlier this month that six parents at Warren Hills who were worried about health risks had been denied transfers for next year, additional people reached out to Schrader and others with growing concerns. One is a mom whose son went to Warren Hills for several years and was often sick at the school.
Schrader has communicated with the mom. She said her son 'had all kinds of health concerns' while at Warren Hills, from being sick often, to having trouble focusing and experiencing headaches.
When the family was gone on an extended trip, and away from the school, the boy didn't have any of those symptoms, the mom said.
'But then as soon as he went back to the school, it started again,' Schrader said. 'Within a week to two weeks, he was back at the nurse's office and he was sick again and they couldn't figure out why.'
After moving on from Warren Hills after 5th grade, the student has been good.
'He has none of the same symptoms or none of the same problems he had,' Schrader said. 'It's literally ever since he's left the school or like moved on to middle school, since starting sixth grade, that he has not had any of the same problems that he had before.'
After 17 years of studying cell towers, Marks said there are illnesses associated with wireless radiation with symptoms including headaches, vertigo, heart palpitations and drowsiness.
Theodora Scarato, director of the Wireless and EMF Program at Environmental Health Sciences, a non-profit scientific organization, has studied the dangers of cell towers and radiation for more than a decade.
'When you actually look at the published research, safety is not assured,' Scarato said. 'And to me, it just makes sense to have safeguards, especially when you have literally hundreds of scientists calling for more protection. Schools should be safe learning environments.'
School districts and city officials in pockets of the nation, in states like California, Maryland, Oregon and Virginia, have banned towers near schools or placed other restrictions. Some countries, she said, have also banned cell towers near schools and have other protections in place. Information on that, as well as other details on towers, can be found on the Environmental Health Sciences website.
'Whereas, in the United States, school children lack any special federal protections or safeguards,' she said. 'And we have limits that haven't been properly reviewed since 1996.'
Specific Absorption Rate limits set by the Federal Communications Commission nearly 30 years ago are outdated and need to be revised, experts say. These limits from 1996 account for 30-minute exposures.
But children and teachers can be at schools for 35 hours a week, if not more, Marks said. Which is why she's urged the school board and superintendent to do something about the tower outside Warren Hills.
'I feel that the cell tower is endangering people in the school,' Marks said. 'However, there could be other contributing factors, and we need to get to the bottom of it.'